


Guard

by CheshireSense (cywscross)



Series: UraIchi Unconnected Word Shorts [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Bodyguard Kisuke, Dimension Travel, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Original Character(s), Temporary Amnesia, Time Travel, Young Ichigo, Young Kisuke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 20:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15542040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/CheshireSense
Summary: Later, Kisuke will remember and tease, "Were you reallyobsessingover me, Ichigo? Oh my, I have my own personal stalker!", and get an elbow to the face for his troubles.At the moment though, all he can think isI've impressed someone, andI'm safe, and - looking at his new lord -Who are you?





	1. Chapter 1

 

It’s tradition, for the Shihouin Clan to take their pick of soldiers from the pool before the Shinigami Academy gets their hands on them. If that’s not strictly by-the-book, well, nobody has to know. Of course, they also accept graduates, same as all the other squads, but it has long become customary practice to scour the poorest districts for souls they can train up and groom to eventually serve either the clan itself or the government. At the very least, one can never have enough cannon fodder, and if they find a few unpolished diamonds in the mix, all the better.

So the recruits are all Rukongai rats with enough reiatsu to stand out ( _and starve_ ) but no means to make the trip all the way to Seireitei on their own to try out for the Academy. They are approached by guards or retainers of the Shihouin Clan and offered a chance at a better life. They’re given six months of basic Onmitsukidou training - just enough to catch an eye or two if they have real talent - before they’re shoved into a large room to sink or swim for their audience.

Some are happy enough with six months of clean clothes and regular meals and a roof over their heads. Others have no desire to return to the poverty they were fished from and are more desperate to prove themselves.

All are blissfully unaware that their instructors meant “sink or swim” rather literally.

 

* * *

 

The day the newest batch of recruits are marched in and allowed one opportunity to impress somebody enough to allow them a more permanent place in the clan, almost the entire lineup of Shihouin royalty is in attendance.

More than one recruit gawks enviously at their potential patrons, all of them with dark skin and gold eyes, dressed in more finery than any of them has ever seen. They’re talking quietly amongst themselves, food and drink in front of them, and they don’t seem at all interested in the people currently filing nervously into the room.

All eyes are at one point or another drawn to the woman sitting dead center. Her purple hair held back with elegant gold kanzashi is unique in a sea of black, but even if it wasn’t, she’s beautiful in a way that makes people pause, and it’s very clear that she holds the highest station in the room judging by the gold kimono she’s dressed in and - even while grinning at something one of her relatives is saying - the dangerous regal air she commands, more potent than any of her family’s. Even by soul standards, she seems on the young side, not a child but still barely out of her teens, and yet she holds court like she was born to it.

Kisuke is the last to shuffle into the room. He’s the smallest of the bunch, probably the youngest too, however hard it is to tell in this afterlife most of the time. He just knows he’s been around in the outer districts for several decades now, long enough to have seen the Shihouin scouts pose as merchants with free food, sharp eyes memorizing who took food like they were starving and who didn’t, several years back, and a few days later, Kisuke overheard the offers made in back alleys, promises of more food and clothing and training, all freely given ( _ha!_ ) in exchange for a lifetime of servitude to the Shihouins if you’re good enough to last beyond the six-month mark, and even if you aren’t, you’d still get all those things for those six months.

Kisuke didn’t trust it that first time. At that point, he’d learned a long time ago that nobody and nothing could be trusted. He kept to himself, kept his head down, and only pickpocketed the barest of necessities to keep himself alive while those scouts were around.

He began regretting it later the next time a hard winter hit his district, the next time a fire smoked him out of the crumbling hole of a building that at least provided a roof over his head and left him homeless for the next four months, the next time he barely escaped alive from groping hands and leering eyes and only managed to limp away by leaving a corpse in his wake. At the very least, even if he fails to make the cut after six months, he would still be better equipped to fend for himself with the training they promised, wouldn’t he?

He didn’t think he’d get another chance. He heard a few rumours - surprisingly few - that those "merchants” only came to the outer districts every three to five years. Kisuke could barely tell time on a good day - calendars were in sparse supply and not exactly vital for survival - and the rumours said that the scouts were rarely seen in the same district more than once within the span of a couple decades. But Kisuke lived at the edges of one and was used to crossing over into the other whenever it suited him, and maybe luck was even on his side for once because only another ten years or so went by before he saw the insignia of the Shihouin Clan hitting the streets again, and that time...

That time, he thought of the man who’d been following him for the past few weeks, the man he hadn’t been able to shake so far, who watched him with greedy eyes that lingered on the colour of his hair and the paleness of his skin under the dirt, and he didn’t hesitate more than a day before he approached the scouts. He had no need to fake his hunger, and less than a week later, he was whisked away to his new life.

Now here he is, six months on. They’ve had three meals a day, as promised, and clothes too, nothing fancy but certainly newer and cleaner than anything Kisuke’s ever stolen. They even got  _hot water_.

And the training. The training was gruelling, and more than once at the beginning, Kisuke woke up in the morning aching all over and one word away from throwing in the towel. But he also remembered the others who collapsed first, quit first, after only a day, two days, a week, a month, and the way they never came back, and most of all the way their instructors looked when they told the remaining recruits in those too-bland voices that the training can be too difficult for some and if they ask to leave at anytime, they would be let go.

Because if there’s one thing Kisuke can say he was good at from the moment he woke up in a dirty alleyway, alone and confused with nothing but his name and the clothes on his back to call his own, it’s recognizing deceit.

So he knows - better than all his fellow recruits who shoved him around more than once and sneered about how no noble would pick him and he would be dumped back in his district in the end - that it really is sink or swim today, and those who sink... well, Kisuke still doesn’t know what happens to them, but he’s positive they haven’t been released back into Rukongai.

( _Why would they?_  He thinks, three months into his training after finally succeeding in firing off a Hadou spell so weak it explodes in a shower of sparks right before it hit the target and leaves burn marks on the dummy’s head and arms and legs, everywhere  _except_  the chest area, which makes the others - who have at that point all at least managed to hit the vicinity of where they’re supposed to hit - laugh.  _Why would they? They’re teaching us things no one in Rukongai can learn without coming to Seireitei. Why would they let us go back with that knowledge?_

 _That would make us dangerous, and unless we’re dangerous **for them** , they would never want us dangerous at all. Not to them. Dangerous means powerful, and the nobles haven’t stayed in power this long by being stupid and letting people they’ve given power to go free._)

His hands are clammy even as he works not to show how anxious he is. His gaze also immediately goes to the woman sitting in the middle, who must be Shihouin Yoruichi. He’s never seen her before of course, but they were warned that the Shihouin Head would be here, and nobody else attracts attention quite as effortlessly as this woman. She looks about his age, maybe a little older, but beautiful and confident with a lethal sort of grace even just in the way she picks up her sake cup, and even Kisuke - who only recently learned how to detect reiatsu signatures - can tell she’s powerful.

He takes a shallow breath and mentally reviews the few things he’s decided to show off today. His reiatsu levels are painfully average, less than most of the other recruits, and his skill with a sword isn’t the best, even for novices like them. But his Kidou, once he finally started producing the spells in the shapes they were taught, improved far more quickly. They’re not extremely powerful - his Shakkahō, for example, can’t punch through a wall the way some of the others have managed - but he likes to think he has better control, and he’s the only one who’s successfully performed all twenty of the mix of low-level Hadou and Bakudou spells they were taught over the past six months.

Surely that has to count for something.

He sneaks another look at the nobles. He’s pretty sure staring counts as a point against them. At the very least, he knows from experience that nobody likes being ogled at like a hunk of meat at the market, and that’s exactly what some of the other recruits are doing. They all know that these men and women will be their meal tickets to a much better way of life. Dangerous, probably, but every day of Kisuke’s life has been dangerous so far, and here at least they’ll have a bed to sleep in and warm clothes and good food. The only thing they have to do is impress one of them enough to agree to sponsor them, either taking them into their personal guard or sending them straight into the Onmitsukidou.

Kisuke knows that - after their instructors gave them a rundown of the expectations of each job - everyone here wants to be personal guard. It seems a far cushier job than the Stealth Force that even the outer districts have heard whispers of, and none of those whispers had anything nice to say about it. Personal guard simply accompanies their lord or lady around, and most of them rarely even leave their clan grounds, let alone Seireitei. A few amongst them are apparently part of the Gotei and/or Onmitsukidou, but that just means they can take care of themselves, and personal guards are rarely required to go on missions with them since they would have other Shinigami or Onmitsukidou officers with them.

Personally, Kisuke doesn’t care where he goes so long as it isn’t out the door. He’s good at surviving, so even if he’s relegated to Covert Ops, he’ll just have to train harder. He may not be good at everything but that doesn’t mean he can’t get better. If he fails here though... If he fails here, he’ll probably be marked for death, and that’s not something he can come back from.

(He regrets it, sometimes, when he’s lying awake at night, too sore and restless to sleep, too tired to force his brain in another direction. He regrets taking a chance with the Shihouins because however better his life has been in terms of living essentials, he’s still little better than a glorified slave now, and at least out there, he had his freedom, fraught with danger though it was.

But he’s rolled his die and taken the gamble, and now the only path left open to him is to make the best of it.)

The best outcome would be impressing Shihouin Yoruichi. He can tell all the others are already trying to catch her eye, eagerly strutting forward and discreetly fighting to get the best position in front of their audience. She’s the Clan Head - even if she only sends him to the Onmitsukidou for further training, Kisuke understands that even just a good word from the person sitting at the top of the food chain can make the difference between rising to a relatively comfortable station in life and finding himself buried in a shallow grave. And as Clan Head, nobody’s going to tell her she can’t do something even if they don’t approve of him.

But short of her, he wouldn’t mind any of the others too. They’re all nobles, they all have at least some clout, and it seems like the Clan Head likes all her family well enough. If one of the others takes him under their wing, she’s unlikely to object even if she’s disinterested in him personally.

So. All he has to do is be impressive to  _somebody_. Right.

(Considering he’s spent his entire life up until six months ago making an art out of being anything but, because  _attention_  means  _danger_ , Kisuke is... well, he’s just trying not to think about exactly how bad this day can go.)

Dummies have been set up for them at the far end, and there’s more than enough space for people to fight. Their instructors already told them to start anytime, and they have until whenever the Shihouins leave. The instructors would come back to pick up anybody left after that.

It’s very telling that they don’t say  _pick up anybody left and return you to your district_. Kisuke has one goal right now and that’s to not be here when that happens.

In the end, Eyebrows is the first to make his move. Kisuke hasn’t bothered to remember his name but his eyebrows stand out more than anyone Kisuke’s ever met, especially when he’s looming over Kisuke and trying to intimate him, so Eyebrows it is.

He chants a Hadou spell, executing the hand gestures with almost dramatic flourish, and sends the overly large yellow beam of light crashing into three of the targets at once, leaving nothing but a small smoking crater in its wake.

They all look over at the Shihouins but none of them even glance over, still chatting and laughing between themselves. Kisuke can’t tell if that means they’re genuinely unimpressed or they’re just pretending to be so that the recruits would have to show off some more skill. Eyebrows puffs up, jaw working angrily because he’s always had something of a temper, but fortunately for him, even he’s not stupid enough to mouth off to nobles.

Instead, he spins on his heel, chants another Hadou spell, and at the last second, switches targets from the dummies to one of the other recruits. Said recruit is thrown off her feet and into a wall, and she doesn’t get up from where she falls.

Kisuke abruptly remembers their instructors telling them just yesterday,  _“If you kill someone to show what you can do, that’s fine.”_

A shout of outrage follows the shocked silence, and just like that, show-and-tell becomes a free-for-all brawl.

Kisuke mentally curses and ducks under the swipe of a blade before backing up to one side, one hand falling uneasily to the katana at his waist, but he can’t use it very well anyway so there’s no point drawing it.

He... doesn’t know what to do. The one good thing here about being small - and unimpressive - is that none of the recruits really notice him unless it’s to mock him, and they all think he’ll wash out anyway so nobody’s going after him specifically, more occupied with each other. Kisuke supposes he could wait until most of them have taken out one another but would that be a good or bad thing in the Shihouins’ eyes? Would that be too cowardly or just clever enough?

He hesitates over his katana for a second longer before unbuckling the whole thing from his waist, sheath and all. It just gets in his way, and he’s a little slower with it on too. He knows better than most that even a split second faster or slower could mean life or death.

The door to the hallway is still open so he tosses the katana out there to prevent anybody else from picking it up and using it as a weapon.

He glances around again at the multi-coloured bursts of light flying around him. He can’t just waste time standing here. Even if he lets most of the others take each other out, he has to be seen doing _something_.

One of the recruits jumps out of the way of a blast of Kidou fire, which puts his back to Kisuke. Kisuke doesn’t waste anytime. He quickly murmurs the incantation for Hōrin, and a tendril of yellow light snakes out along the floor towards the recruit’s feet. Kisuke can’t make it as thick and bright as the others but the spell moves exactly the way he wants it to, splitting off into five even finer threads before slipping into the space between floorboards, then back up, then down again, until they’ve woven themselves into the wood like string tangled around an object, and all the sturdier for it. Once Kisuke is satisfied, a single thought has the spell surging up again and converging on the recruit and knotting around his ankles so quickly that he doesn’t even have time to struggle before he’s toppling with a shout.

Kisuke doesn’t bother wasting time on him. He commands the spell to dive into the floor again, looping in and out of the floorboards, and then he captures another recruit, and another, and another, until he  has five of them swearing and yanking at their bound feet.

On its own, Kisuke’s not strong enough to use that spell to simply tie someone up. But woven into the floor the way he’s managed to do with the spell strengthens it enough that no amount of pulling is going to release his targets until he runs out of reiatsu, and not even taking a blade to it will work without his targets cutting up their own feet in the process.

It’s not what their instructors taught them but it’s the only way Kisuke could think of to overcome his own weakness with Hōrin. He hopes it won’t count against him.

“You little runt!” One of his captured targets snarls. “You’ll pay for this!”

Whoops. It’s one of his regular bullies. Teeth, because of the overbite.

Kisuke does take an apprehensive step back when Teeth calls over his shoulder, “Kakei! Gut that piece of trash!”

Oh, that’s Eyebrows. Who stalks menacingly towards him, knuckles stained with blood, something sadistic gleaming in his eyes, and behind him, there are bodies on the ground, pools of blood forming under them even as other recruits continue fighting. The man throws out both hands, chanting the incantation for a Byakurai, and Kisuke doesn’t think diving aside will do him any good when he’s seen the width of the bolt of lightning Eyebrows is capable of shooting.

So instead, he hastily mutters his own incantation for a rippling shield of water, and normally, the very idea of it being able to withstand a blast of Kidou from Eyebrows is laughable. Eyebrows is already grinning as blue lightning forms in his hand because Kisuke is simply  _not powerful enough_ , but-

The shield shimmers into existence front of him just as the bolt of lightning leaps from Eyebrows’ hands and lunges for him like a ravenous beast. But Kisuke doesn’t let it distract him, and a firm silent command changes his shield from the normal circular barrier to a curved surface that Kisuke flings towards Eyebrows, just far enough that the edge of it swallows his outstretched hands in a curtain of water.

Eyebrows blinks.

It happens in an instant.

The Byakurai slams into the water barrier and is promptly carried along right back to its owner at frightening speeds. Between one breath and the next, Eyebrows is down on the ground, body convulsing even as his mouth opens in a silent scream.

Kisuke just grits his teeth and braces his feet. He can feel his shield wavering under the force of the current, but without the raw strength to block it or the speed to dodge it, redirecting it was the only way he knew how to counter the Byakurai.

He just needs to wait it out, except-

A twinge of pain snaps up his right arm, his concentration falters, and he can  _feel_  a part of his shield crumble and  _fuck he’s going to-_

Reiatsu - immense and terrifying and more than he’s ever felt in his entire life - crashes down on the room like a sledgehammer, crushing both spells out of existence before lifting and disappearing just as fast.

Kisuke staggers and drops to his knees. He’s vaguely aware of the other recruits practically collapsing as well, and even a few of the nobles sway in their seats.

_Who-?_

Laughter rings delighted and loud across the room, and those who have the energy for it turn to gape at the Shihouin Head, who’s grinning at something over Kisuke’s shoulder.

“Ichi-bo!” She calls out. “I was wondering how long you were going to lurk in the hallway!”

Kisuke lifts a shaky hand to shove his hair out of his eyes before twisting around.

And he finds a boy in an elegant dark blue kimono standing in the doorway that they all came through earlier. He has fairer skin than all the other Shihouins but his eyes are the same cat gold. His hair on the other hand is a bright orange, even more eye-catching than the Shihouin Head’s purple. In his hand is the sword Kisuke tossed out into the hallway earlier, and he’s staring straight at Kisuke.

Kisuke feels his cheeks flush. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to throw away the blade. It isn’t as if it made much of a difference in the end anyway.

Upon hearing his name ( _Ichi-bo? What?_ ), the boy finally glances away from Kisuke to the Clan Head, and the frown that was already knitted across his brow deepens into a scowl. “I wasn’t  _lurking_ , Yoru-nee.”

 _Yoru-nee._  Fantastic. Kisuke’s heard snippets of the other Shihouins talking, and even they didn’t refer to the Clan Head so affectionately, at least not in public.  _Yoruichi-nee-sama_  was the most casual they got.

Clearly, this boy is very close to his sister, or at least he’s a much-loved cousin, and Kisuke may have just insulted him somehow. If nothing else, the boy hasn’t stopped frowning, and a moment later, his gaze is on Kisuke again, sharp and assessing.

Dread pools in his stomach even as he drops his eyes and stares at his frayed sleeve, still smoking a little from the backlash of the Byakurai that came so close to electrocuting him as well. If this boy hadn’t interfered...

Kisuke’s failed. He knows it. Can’t even defend himself from a simple Hadou. Worse, he only managed to show off two Kidou spells, neither of them exactly the way they’re  _supposed_  to be executed, and then he even almost kills himself in the process.

He wonders why the boy stepped in at all. He wonders what they’re going to do to him now.

“Lurking, standing, it’s all the same to us,” The Clan Head is saying cheerfully, and then her tone goes sly, “Anyway, this is him? The one you’ve been obsessing over for the past six months?”

“I have _not_ been  _obsessing_  either! _”_

_What?_

The Clan Head cackles. “Then what do you call running down to the training grounds every day since the new batch of recruits came in?”

Kisuke chances a peek up. The boy is downright glowering now, and his ears have gone red.

_What is going on?_

“Oi, what’s your name?”

It takes a moment for Kisuke to realize the Clan Head is addressing him. He hurriedly shifts his weight so that he’s halfway facing her without turning his back on the boy, and he keeps his head bowed. “Urahara Kisuke, Shihouin-sama.”

Shihouin-sama hums thoughtfully, and when Kisuke chances another glance up, he finds her gaze just as piercing as her brother’s.

“That surprised me,” She tells him. “What you did with those two Kidou spells. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one of them done that way.”

Kisuke swallows hard and tries not to cringe. He should’ve just stuck with the textbook Kidou spells, even if they’re not very strong when he does them.

“I can see why you like him,” The Clan Head continues, and it takes another second for Kisuke to realize she’s talking to her brother again. “None of his reports during training said he was anything special, and yet he adapted two Kidou spells on the spot while under fire. You have a good eye for potential.”

The boy harrumphs like an old man. “Don’t try to steal him from me because you see it  _now_ , Yoru-nee. I want him.”

The Clan Head rolls her eyes. “You are such a brat. I wasn’t thinking anything of the sort.”

And then she looks at him again, and Kisuke flinches a little at the way her eyes blaze with some inner fire even as the air itself simmers with the threat of her reiatsu.

“Ichigo’s my little brother,” She informs him, something fierce and deadly in her features. “Once you’re trained up, if you let him die on your watch, I’ll make you wish for death long before I actually kill you. Do you understand, Urahara Kisuke?”

It... actually takes a few moments to understand, and when he does, he’s almost dizzy with it.

 _He’s been chosen. The boy - Shihouin Ichigo -_ wants him _. Which means-_

_He’s safe._

He goes down in a proper kneeling position to bow properly. “I understand, Shihouin-sama.”

And he does. He wanted -  _needed_  - to impress one of the Shihouins for his own continued survival, but he knows he’ll die just as fast - or slow, because he doesn’t think for one second that Shihouin-sama’s threat is a bluff - if he doesn’t take his new job seriously.

He catches a glimpse of the Clan Head’s eyebrows going up, and he has a second to wonder what he’s done wrong now before a hand grabs one of his and hauls him to his feet. He’s stunned enough that all he does is blink.

“He’s mine now,” The boy declares, still scowling, and there’s a weight in his words that makes his sister sigh and his other relatives smile indulgently at him.

“Yes, yes, fine,” Shihouin-sama waves a dismissive hand, her other reaching for her sake again. “Get out of here. Don’t blow anything up until at least after the new year.”

Kisuke’s new lord aims a truly magnificent eyeroll at his sister, and then - still holding Kisuke’s hand - begins dragging him towards the door.

They don’t get that far before Teeth shouts, “That’s not fair! He’s  _nothing!_ ”

The entire room freezes. Kisuke almost trods on his new lord’s heels because of how abruptly the boy stops.

Cautiously, Kisuke glances over his shoulder. He’s... actually mostly forgotten the other recruits. He has no lost love for any of them, and when he spots the motionless form of Eyebrows slumped over on the floor and covered in burns, he feels... nothing.

Death is not new to him. Neither is murder.

Teeth on the other hand seems to realize he’s put his foot in it but has no idea how to fix it. Another second and he doesn’t have to.

The senbon in his throat seems to surprise him more than anything else. Then he chokes, gurgles wetly, and collapses.

From her seat, Shihouin-sama smiles at everyone, a second senbon glinting between her fingers as she surveys the room. It’s one of the most frightening things Kisuke’s ever witnessed in his life.

He looks away when his hand is squeezed, and he follows willingly as his lord starts walking again. They leave the training hall behind, and Kisuke is pretty sure he’s never going to see any of the other recruits ever again.

“Here.”

Kisuke blinks, and then quickly accepts the katana his lord hands him, feeling embarrassed and nervous all over again. “Thank you, Shihouin- -sama.”

Best be safe.

Except that just seems to irritate his lord, who scowls up at him in a way that makes him look grumpy more than anything else. The boy barely comes up to Kisuke’s shoulder.

“Call me Ichigo,” His lord commands. “Shihouin-sama is my sister.”

Kisuke quickly nods. “Of course, Ichigo-sama.”

Ichigo makes a face. “ _Just_  Ichigo.”

Kisuke stares blankly at him.  _What?_

Ichigo heaves a sigh. “We’ll work on it. Can I call you Kisuke?”

Kisuke nods. He doesn’t really care - he was “Urahara” during training but it isn’t as if anybody else called him anything except variations of a handful of insults - and he figures his new lord has the right to call him anything he wants.

They walk on. Kisuke wonders if he should mention the fact that Ichigo’s still holding his hand.

He doesn’t. It’s hardly his place.

“You shouldn’t toss your sword around like that,” Ichigo continues abruptly as they make their way up a hallway that Kisuke’s never been before. “What would you do if you lost it? It’s an Asauchi. One day, it’s going to be your partner.”

Kisuke hesitates before venturing carefully, “Asauchi? What is that?”

Ichigo stares hard up at him. Kisuke’s shoulders hunch without permission, although he can’t help frowning in confusion when his lord asks almost rhetorically, “You don’t remember anything, do you?”

Kisuke opens his mouth, and then closes it again. He has no idea what to say. Remember what?

Something flickers through Ichigo’s eyes before he looks away. He finally releases Kisuke’s hand, and Kisuke is horrified when said hand twitches on its own without his say-so like it wants to  _reach out_  and take  _Ichigo’s hand back_.

He gives himself a mental slap. What’s wrong with him? Is insanity part of reiatsu exhaustion?

“Never mind,” Ichigo says, motioning for Kisuke to keep up as he quickens his pace. “I’ll show you to your room. I have like an entire  _wing_  in this stupid-big house for some reason so you can take your pick.”

Kisuke follows obediently, still feeling slightly dazed.

Well, at least he’s not dead, however bewildering his new lord seems to be. Not dead is a pretty good day in his book. And it’s very likely that he’s just landed himself a spot in Ichigo’s personal guard.

Clearly, there are worse things in life. For now, he’ll count his blessings.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

He gets his own room, as promised. Upon Ichigo’s urging, he picks the bedroom two down from Ichigo’s. He doesn’t want to stay too close - that’s rude, and he doesn’t know why Ichigo doesn’t seem to care - but he doesn’t choose the farthest room from Ichigo’s either. He doesn’t want to seem like he doesn’t want to be here.

He does ask, once he realizes that the reason he gets his pick of the nine empty bedrooms is - obviously - because nobody lives in them, “Does your other personal guard not live here?”

Which seems weird. Personal guard is kept around for the lord or lady’s protection, aren’t they?

But, “No,” Ichigo tells him bluntly as he strides over to the window, opening it to air the room out. The light almost blinds Kisuke. He hasn’t seen the sun in six months. All training took place underground.

“I don’t have a personal guard,” Ichigo continues briskly, and then pauses before amending, “Well I do now. Congratulations, you’re the first.”

...The Clan Head’s younger brother doesn’t have a personal guard?

“I’m not fully trained,” is all he can come up with, which he inwardly cringes as soon as he says it, because of  _course_  he isn’t, and they both know it.

“You will be,” Ichigo tells him. “You’re gonna be strong.”

And there’s something in his voice - in the way he says it, with the weight of absolute faith, like he  _knows_  Kisuke could never be anything else - that makes Kisuke want to tremble and step closer and flinch away all at the same time.

He tightens his grip around his katana so that none of those reactions show in his hands.

“Anyway,” Ichigo nods at the closet. “Someone already fetched your stuff from your dorm so you have your standard change of clothes and whatever else they gave you in training, but that’s not enough, obviously, so we’ll go shopping tomorrow. I can show you where all the good shops are. And restaurants too of course. Oh, and as my personal bodyguard, you’ll start getting paid. Uh,” He scratches his head, and somehow, he makes his scowl look sheepish. “I haven’t figured out a fair number yet. We’ll talk about that later? I have to check with Yoru-nee about it, but honestly, it’s up to me, so if I think the amount is too low, or if  _you_  think it’s too low, I can give you more. Any questions?”

Yes. Yes, Kisuke has so many questions he doesn’t know where to start. And he’s not sure if he’s allowed to ask most of them either. For one, he’s not asking his  _lord_  for  _more money_.

“What is my training schedule?” He finally opts. That’s safe enough, right? “And who would train me?”

“I’ll train you,” Ichigo announces. “And we can start on Monday. We can take the weekend to settle you in. Does that sound okay?”

Is there any right answer here except yes?

He looks at his new lord, this boy who stands as high as Kisuke’s shoulder, and even that much only because the tips of his hair gives him an extra inch or so. But Kisuke also remembers the heavy pressure of his reiatsu, the way he so easily cancelled out two looping Kidou spells in the blink of an eye, and something in him  _wants_.

He wants to be able to do that too, that and more, and if Ichigo can teach him and is  _willing_  to teach him, then no matter how improper Kisuke’s pretty sure all of this is, who is he to protest?

Besides, the stronger he gets, the better he’ll be able to protect his lord, and the better he does that, the safer his life will be.

Well, as safe as a bodyguard’s life ever is. But that’s still probably safer than a Rukongai rat’s.

That’s good enough for him.

 

* * *

 

Kisuke’s new life is... very different from his old one. The first morning he wakes up in his new room and wanders out to find Ichigo  _cooking both of them breakfast_ , he almost reels from the disorientation that hits him.

Is that- That should be a servant’s job, right? Or even Kisuke’s? Never mind that Kisuke has no idea how to cook. Why is a noble even cooking?

But there are no servants, as Kisuke quickly comes to realize. The entire wing is empty save for himself and Ichigo. It’s basically a set of rooms fit to hold a noble and their household, except Ichigo lives alone, and Kisuke’s apparently the first and only exception.

It’s not his place to complain though, so he doesn’t. There isn’t anything to complain about anyway. It’s just... really weird. Ichigo doesn’t expect Kisuke to wait on him hand and foot at all, and yes, Kisuke is new, and at this point, if somebody attacks them, Ichigo’s far more likely to save the two of them than Kisuke is to save anybody. Which is just another reason why he shouldn’t even be here yet. Even the instructors told them that if they become personal guard, they would still be spending time with the Onmitsukidou first to actually become of use to their lord or lady.

Not... whatever this is.

But if there’s one thing Kisuke is good at, it’s adapting to just about any situation he’s thrown into, so he shuts up and listens when Ichigo speaks and tries not to ask too many stupid questions.

Hopefully, he’ll be able to figure everything else out along the way.

 

* * *

 

Breakfast is delicious, even better than the meals he got during basic training. After that though, as promised, they head out to go shopping. The instructors actually did include basic etiquette lessons in their training so Kisuke knows to stay two steps behind and to the right of Ichigo, but Ichigo grows annoyed with having to crane his head around all the time to talk to him and ends up slowing his own pace until Kisuke has no choice but to walk level with his lord lest they stop walking altogether.

Ichigo looks absurdly smug when he finally gets his way, and Kisuke finds himself almost snickering before he catches himself and makes sure his expression remains politely blank as they continue on down the street.

He’s never bought anything in his entire life. Anything he ever needed, he stole. People in the outer districts usually traded for things anyway, and Kisuke’s almost never had anything to trade, but when he did, he traded things he stole for things he needed even more. He knows he can’t trade _or_ steal anymore here though so he listens closely as Ichigo explains the currency system to him after Kisuke admits that he doesn’t know how much each coin is worth. It’s a little embarrassing, shameful even, but if Ichigo thinks so, he doesn’t show it.

Ichigo buys him everything from clothes to books to snacks Kisuke’s never even heard of. He tries to say it’s too much because it really is – he doesn’t _need_ most of this stuff – but Ichigo takes him to a bookshop, and he loses time for the next three hours until Ichigo, looking amused even with that perpetual frown of his, drags his attention away from the book Kisuke is reading and tells him they should probably be heading home because it’s getting late.

Kisuke’s flinches and apologizes and attempts to return the stack of books (when did he even grab them all?) to their shelves but Ichigo just rolls his eyes, buys them all for him, and then they head back to the Shihouin compound.

Ichigo cooks dinner for them, Kisuke tries again to probe his new lord for some hint of exactly what his responsibilities are going to be, and Ichigo distracted him by telling him about Asauchi and Zanpakutou and Shinigami and Hollows.

Kisuke goes to bed, still thoroughly confused, but…

He looks at the new books on his new shelves in his new bedroom.

He doesn’t understand.

 

* * *

 

Sunday passes much the same way except they mostly stay in, possibly because Ichigo can sense just how overwhelmed Kisuke feels and would rather not go out again today. So he gets to read all day instead. Ichigo disappears for a few hours, tells Kisuke he doesn’t have to follow, that he’s only visiting his sister, and Kisuke doesn’t see him again until night has fallen.

“What did you read today?” Ichigo asks over another colourful spread of food.

Kisuke obediently lists the major points of the three books he managed to devour today, two on the history of Seireitei and another on basic Kidou theory that the instructors never went very in-depth about.

He trails off when he notices his lord’s slightly downcast expression, although when he stops, Ichigo immediately glances back up with an odd twist of a smile and prompts, “Did you find it interesting? Your improvised Kidou spells are probably more fun for you.”

Kisuke hesitates for a long moment, wondering if he should apologize. He settles on, “I don’t have that much reiatsu so I had to adjust for that.” His grip tightens on his chopsticks. He’s never used them before but it seems to come naturally to him anyway. “I’m not- I wasn’t as strong as any of the others during training.”

“But you have the most potential,” Ichigo retorts, and Kisuke blinks at the vehemence in his words. “And you’re _smart_. That’s worth a lot more. Raw power isn’t everything, and reiatsu levels go up the longer you train. But if you don’t know how to use what you have, then you’re just as likely to die as if you have no power at all.” The brief grin he flashes looks a little rueful. “I’m not that good at Kidou myself. I can teach you all the incantations, and I can even show you what each of them looks like, but anything more than that and you’ll have to experiment on your own. But I think that’s more your style anyway.”

Kisuke stares at him for a second longer than he probably should before he jerks his head in a nod and returns to his rice.

It _is_ fun, is the thing. He can do the Kidou spells the instructors taught him, but it’s not even just that he can’t make them very strong, it’s that it’s _boring_. Firing the same Hadou spell the same way every single time got tedious fast, and Kisuke couldn’t help wondering if he could adjust each spell to fit his needs. To him, it seems stupid produce an attack only one way; what if you were only able to use one spell and the enemy knew how to defend against it? Then the spell would be rendered useless.

Thinking up different ways to utilize Kidou is far more interesting to him, and it seems… it seems Ichigo has at least given him permission to do that?

He hopes so. He’ll have to learn the rest of the Kidou spells first anyway but he’ll tinker with them here and there and keep an eye on Ichigo’s reactions.

In the meantime however…

Kisuke thinks of Ichigo’s crestfallen expression earlier, looks at how they’ve fallen into an awkward silence now and even the way Ichigo is poking at his food, and he takes a breath and dares to ask, “How… was your day?”

Ichigo freezes, and then his head comes up, and Kisuke flushes at the way the boy beams at him. His lord is still frowning, and Kisuke is beginning to learn that for some reason, Ichigo is _always_ frowning, even when he’s not angry or upset, but he also smiles like the simple question makes him genuinely happy, and Kisuke ends up listening quietly as his lord tells him about the game of Shunpo tag his sister badgered him into today, and then what Shunpo is, and then even little tidbits about his other relatives – Aunt Kiyoko who was stuck with the task of making nice with the Kuchikis all day and came back looking fit to murder, his little brother Yuushirou who finally took his first steps instead of pouting at him or Yoruichi to carry him around, Uncle Asahi who’s finishing up his last jewelry pieces and would be selling them next week so they should set some time aside to go take a look at that.

Kisuke helps him wash the dishes later, and then they part ways to retire for the night.

Ichigo is still confusing to him. But… Kisuke is starting to think that maybe it’s not a _bad_ sort of confusing after all.

 

* * *

 

Training begins like this: “I hear you’re absolutely terrible at zanjutsu,” Ichigo says with – in Kisuke’s opinion – a completely unnecessary amount of gleeful cheer. “Don’t worry; I’m excellent at it.”

And then he proceeds to chase Kisuke around the training grounds with his sword for the rest of the entire morning.

By noon, he’s flat on his back and gasping for breath, ran ragged in a way that not even the instructors managed, and he forgets to think before he wheezes out, “You are a terrible person.”

A second later, he snaps his mouth shut so fast he bites his tongue, panic freezing the exhaustion out of his brain so quickly it makes his head spin, but when he looks up, all he finds is Ichigo crouching over him, a smirk on his face, not even out of breath.

“I definitely am,” Ichigo agrees, looking inordinately pleased about it. “But hey, you managed to block a few of my attacks instead of just running away the whole time. You’ll get even better with practice.”

He extends a hand next, and Kisuke stares at it for a long moment before slowly taking it and letting his lord pull him to his feet. The fear gripping his heart eases a bit, and when Ichigo hands him a bottle of water, he even manages to drink it without feeling too much like he’s overstepping the boundaries of his station.

“Come on,” Ichigo says as he sheathes his blade – an all black katana with an equally black sheath. “Let’s head in. We can wash up and then get something to eat, and I’ll give you an overview of what you could’ve done better today. We can move on to Kidou after that. I’ll teach you a few more, and you can play with them on your own time. Sound good?”

Kisuke nods silently, and then winces when Ichigo’s good cheer fades a little. But his lord only nods back and leads the way out, features settled back into his usual scowl.

Kisuke watches his back and wonders how many mistakes he can make before Ichigo _does_ take offense and punishes him.

 

* * *

 

Except-

Ichigo never does adhere to any of the rules of propriety between nobility and servant. If anything, he gets annoyed when Kisuke tries to do the laundry for him or clean the entire wing on his own or – once, in a fit of desperation as he attempts again to figure out what exactly his damn job is supposed to be – offers to dress Ichigo, because nobles like that sort of thing, don’t they?

He gets “Pervert!” screeched at him and a sandal chucked at his head and extra dark scowls directed at him for the rest of the day, but Ichigo doesn’t punish him – physically or even just with chores – and the next day, everything is back to normal. Or as normal as Kisuke’s new life ever gets.

He knows he’s technically not the sort of servant that takes care of the everyday things for his lord. But until he’s strong enough to act in his capacity as bodyguard, it’s not like he can do anything else either. He feels less like he’s working for Ichigo and more like Ichigo is… providing for him, everything from material needs to education to training. And Kisuke _still_ gets paid.

He’s basically getting paid for doing nothing. It’s… just not right.

So, three weeks in, when he’s become a little more accustomed to his lord’s personality and knows for a fact that Ichigo _likes_ it when Kisuke’s more free with his words, and Kisuke no longer feels like he’s picking his way through gang territory without any cover when he strikes up conversations with Ichigo, he blurts out shortly after they get back from a training session, “You shouldn’t pay me. I’m not doing anything to get paid.”

Ichigo blinks at him. “You’re my personal guard.”

Kisuke huffs. “I’m not though. We both know that.”

A tense silence stretches between them. Kisuke tries not to cringe at his own words. Just because he’s not in danger of having a heart attack when he lets himself speak his mind more often these days doesn’t mean his self-preservation instincts don’t kick in to berate him anyway.

Ichigo finally nods grudgingly. “But I’m teaching you to be.”

“And once I am, I can get paid,” Kisuke counters. “But not right now. I don’t need it anyway. You-” He looks around the living area where his most recent stack of books is still piled on the table and the haori Ichigo saw him eyeing when they went out a few days ago is hanging on a hook by the door. “You get me everything anyway.”

“You deserve everything,” is Ichigo’s immediate rejoinder, and then he flushes and glares and looks a bit like he wants to smack his head against the nearest wall.

Kisuke just gapes at him, too shocked and too bewildered to be embarrassed as well.

“Look, you’re mine to take care of now-” Which is _not_ how it works, Kisuke would like to interject, but Ichigo forges on doggedly, “-so getting you things you need is normal.”

Things he _needs_ , maybe. At least three-quarters of the things he now owns are certainly _not_ things he needs.

“But fine,” Ichigo abruptly relents. “I can see why that might make you uncomfortable. So we can trade.”

Kisuke straightens. This he can do. This makes sense.

“Teach me what you did at the training hall that day,” Ichigo continues, and Kisuke’s mind stalls. _What-?_ “I told you, I’m not that good at Kidou, especially the lower-level ones. Help me get better.”

“…I’m not that good,” Kisuke says, because he isn’t, he practically just _started_.

“And I’m worse,” Ichigo counters in such a matter-of-fact tone that it’s the only reason Kisuke doesn’t wince from that misstep. “I’ll pay you for the lessons. That’s fair, isn’t it?”

It isn’t. It really isn’t.

“Are you going to stop buying me things?” Kisuke bargains, ignoring the twitchy feeling he gets from demanding anything of Ichigo.

Ichigo – predictably - scowls. “…Fine. But I get to buy gifts for you on holidays.”

Holidays. Right. Those are days like New Year’s, right? And there can’t be that many of them.

Do nobles buy presents for the people who serve them though? Then again, Kisuke should be used to the fact that Ichigo’s nothing like the kind of noble he expects by now.

“Only if I can get you something too,” He says at last. He’ll have to get his hands on a calendar and hope the holidays are marked down, and he’ll have to figure out what he could possibly get Ichigo that Ichigo can’t get for himself. But this way, it would be more like another trade.

Ichigo’s scowl lightens, and his eyes go soft in a way that makes Kisuke duck his head and want to hide, which is ridiculous and doesn’t even work properly considering his lord is a full head and a half shorter.

“Deal,” Ichigo agrees, looking adorably smug again, and Kisuke can only sigh.

Well, there are worse things than teaching Kidou to his lord.

 

* * *

 

It takes some getting used to, but Kisuke’s beginning to realize that _everything_ to do with Ichigo takes getting used to. He’s just… not anything like the people Kisuke have interacted with or seen or even heard of.

Teaching Ichigo is a new experience. It requires Kisuke telling him what to do, which is strange and mildly terrifying, but his lord listens and obeys to the best of his ability and watches Kisuke modify the standard Kidou spells with an undisguised sort of admiration that somehow makes him want to preen.

He very firmly shoves that reaction down.

Ichigo does well, and Kisuke feels like that’s less his teaching skills and more Ichigo’s innate ability to _learn_ anything he puts his mind to. Kisuke’s not doing anything special. He simply shows Ichigo how he does it, clumsily stumbles through an explanation that probably only makes sense to him, and then Ichigo just… _does it_. Sometimes it takes him several tries, but at the end of the day, anything Kisuke shows him, he can reproduce almost picture perfectly.

It’s not like his lord is _bad_ at Kidou to begin with either. And his youth certainly doesn’t mean a lack of experience or ability. For all that he’s shorter than Kisuke, he’s less of a boy than Kisuke originally thought, and mature enough and knowledgeable enough about various subjects that he sometimes makes Kisuke feel like the younger one of the two of them.

So no, the main problem Ichigo has with Kidou is just that he has so much reiatsu that he automatically overpowers the lower-level spells, and it takes effort for him to control the output.

In contrast, well, Ichigo shows him Hadou #91 that day. Senjū Kōten Taihō is beautiful under Ichigo’s hands, and the sheer power that he’s able to push into it leaves Kisuke sweating but doesn’t even make Ichigo blink.

“Are all Shihouins like you?” Kisuke asks a little while later when curiosity finally gets the better of him. “With such large reiatsu reserves?”

Maybe it’s a clan thing.

Ichigo snorts. “Definitely not. I’m… different.”

Kisuke smiles faintly at that. Different in a lot of ways.

“My mother’s side of the family tends to have naturally larger reserves,” Ichigo reveals. “But not as large as mine.”

Kisuke blinks. “Your mother…?”

Ichigo casts him a swift unreadable look. “The Shiba Clan.”

It only takes a moment for Kisuke to place the name. He’s read up on noble families recently so he knows that the Shibas are another of the big clans in Seireitei. He recalls the Clan Head; she shared the same facial structure as Ichigo but not much else. Ichigo must take after his mother a lot.

Speaking of taking after though, “Is this a Shiba thing or a Shihouin thing then?” Kisuke enquires as he watches Ichigo leap into the nearest tree in the stretch of forest at the back of the Shihouin clan lands. Today is apparently the day Kisuke learns Shunpo.

Ichigo grins down at him. “Definitely Shihouin. Now come on, up you get.”

Kisuke sighs and then begins scaling the tree. He feels extra ungainly compared to the way Ichigo is practically bouncing on his toes on the branch above his head.

“We couldn’t we start closer to the ground?” Kisuke grumbles, and then instinctively checks Ichigo for a negative reaction at his complaint, but his lord only smirks, just as he does every time he drags Kisuke into attempting yet another crazy training method.

 _“My own teachers taught me this way,”_ Ichigo told him once, and Kisuke still can’t figure out the expression on his lord’s face that day, smiling at first like he was enjoying a private joke but looking away with a grimace only moments later like it hurt too.

(Sometimes, Ichigo looks at him like that, when he thinks Kisuke doesn’t notice – half-smile, half-grimace, eyes warm but grieving, and it makes something in Kisuke _ache_ even though he doesn’t understand any of it.)

Ichigo helps him up the rest of the way once Kisuke has one arm over the branch.

“Do _not_ push me off,” He warns once he’s – relatively – safely seated on the branch.

Ichigo flashes a mischievous grin but he also nods. “Alright, how do you want to do this? You already know basic Hohou. Shunpo shouldn’t be too difficult an upgrade for you.”

Kisuke blows out a calming breath. “Can we go over the theory one more time?” He always does better with the verbal foundation pressed into his mind.

“Sure,” Ichigo agrees easily, and Kisuke relaxes against the trunk of the tree as he listens to Ichigo’s abridged lecture on the finer points of Shunpo, complete with hand gestures and tips about how not to crash into one’s destination.

It takes Kisuke two weeks even before he’s capable of racing after Ichigo through the trees in a clumsy game of tag, flashing from branch to branch to branch, eyes on the teasing glimpses of Ichigo’s bright beacon of hair, pushing himself harder each time they play, determined to catch up one day.

 

* * *

 

Four months after Kisuke met Ichigo, he wakes to the distant sound of the wing’s locked door being picked and opened before shutting again. He’s always been a light sleeper – he’s had to be – and coupled with his sensitive hearing, he’s instantly wide awake and rolling out of bed.

Nobody should be here except himself and Ichigo, and Ichigo went to bed when Kisuke did, hours ago.

He doesn’t bother with his sword even though he’s gotten better with it, and all the meditation Ichigo’s insisted he try has resulted in a woman’s voice echoing in his mind at random times, but he’s still leagues better with Kidou, and if this is some kind of assassination attempt…

He’s stronger than he was even just four months ago. Ichigo’s _made_ him stronger in four months than his instructors ever did in six. He still doesn’t think he’s very powerful, and he’s definitely still learning, but whoever this is, if they’re looking to harm Ichigo, they’re going to have to go through Kisuke first.

Muted footsteps creep past his bedroom door, the clink of a blade leaving its sheath follows – one, two, three steps-

-and Kisuke presses a hand to the crack under his door and fires off a Haien, compressing the oblong purple energy as much as possible until it’s as thin as paper but as wide as his doorway and only spreading even further along the length and width of the hall like spilled paint as it’s given room to grow. In the span of seconds, Kisuke stretches it as far and as fast as he possibly can, and then he releases the spell, and the entire hall explodes.

On hindsight, he probably could have and should have been subtler. But his main concern is taking out the intruder as quickly as possible, and this way, at least Ichigo would be made aware of the break-in as well, if he doesn’t know already.

The explosion dies down, and Kisuke throws his door open, another Kidou spell sparking in his hands, only to stop short as the smoke clears and the debris settles and laughter reaches his ears.

He looks up, and his breath catches in his chest. The unmistakeable purple-haired figure of the Shihouin Clan Head is crouched upside-down on the ceiling and all but crying with laughter.

“What is going _on_ out here?” Ichigo demands, storming out of his room, yukata not even tied properly as he kicks pieces of wood out of the way. He looks at Kisuke, who stares back at him with a stricken expression, and then up at his sister, who is _still_ laughing.

Ichigo’s expression morphs into an 8 on his scale of irritation, and Kisuke feels his lungs start working again when he realizes his lord isn’t angry at _him_. And Shihouin-sama probably isn’t but…

“Yoru-nee, what even are you doing here?!” Ichigo demands. “It’s three in the morning!”

Yoruichi doesn’t answer. Instead, she wipes at her eyes and jabs a finger at Kisuke, still grinning as she says, “Ichi-bo! Did you see that? Your bodyguard’s first reaction was to try and blow me up! What have you been teaching him? You’ve infected the poor kid!”

She cackles again like his murder attempt was the funniest thing she’s ever seen.

It’s probably at this point that Kisuke gives up on ever understanding this family.

Ichigo heaves a sigh so long-suffering that Kisuke feels a pang of sympathy for him despite still not knowing what exactly has happened here.

“Yoruichi-nee-san!” Ichigo snaps this time. “It’s too early for this! What were you doing sneaking in here?”

The Clan Head finally stops laughing and pins Ichigo with a look that’s somehow teasing and condescending and fond all at once. “What do you think, Ichi-bo? I’m testing your bodyguard of course!”

They both stare incredulously at her, although Kisuke hastily drops his gaze when she glances at him again.

“You still have a long way to go,”  The Clan Head tells him blithely. “I made so much noise coming in. An actual assassin wouldn’t. And you shouldn’t rush out like you did after just one attack. You had no idea if you got me or not. But your Kidou is even better than before.” Her smile sharpens. “And it’s good to see you’re taking your job seriously.”

Kisuke shifts his weight uncomfortably. Does this mean he’s not in trouble for _attacking the Clan Head?_

“Of course he is,” Ichigo growls, elbowing his way forward to stand partially in front of Kisuke. “Now can you go back to sleep already instead of destroying other people’s hallways-”

“What? You can’t blame me for that!”

“I can when he thought you were here to kill me!” Ichigo insists stubbornly. “You’re paying for the damages!”

The Clan Head rolls her eyes and finally drops down from the ceiling, only to wrangle Ichigo into a headlock before he can dodge, drilling her knuckles into his head.

“You are _such_ a brat,” She sighs over Ichigo’s hissed curses as he kicks and flails. She finally lets him go, hopping back neatly when Ichigo immediately tries to sweep her legs out from under her. “Alright, alright, I’m going! Excuse me for being worried about my little brother holing himself up in this wing like some antisocial hermit. I have to make sure every once in a while that you haven’t died or something, don’t I?”

“You just saw me two weeks ago!”

“That’s way too long!”

“Yoru-nee, it’s _three in the morning!_ Make sure I’m not dead some other time!”

Kisuke’s watches - bemused - as Ichigo chases his cackling sister out the nearest window. And then he grimaces sheepishly as Ichigo makes his way back over and they both turn to look at the destruction around them.

“I apologize,” Kisuke offers haltingly.

Ichigo blinks at him before snorting. “Are you joking? I’ve destroyed way more stuff than a _hallway_ , and for less important reasons too. So don’t worry about it. I’ll get some people in to fix it in the morning.” He cracks a yawn. “Now let’s go back to sleep.” He pauses, searching Kisuke’s expression. “You’re okay, right? Yoru-nee’s sense of humour is… an acquired taste. And she’s a little overprotective of me.”

Kisuke nods cautiously. “She isn’t… angry then? That I...”

Ichigo just looks plain amused now. “Your reaction was exactly the one she was looking for, Kisuke. But also, even though you’re gonna get really strong one day, right now, Yoru-nee could kick your ass blindfolded with both hands tied behind her back.”

That makes Kisuke huff a little. “I’ll do better next time, if she tries again.”

He stops. Wait, that’s probably not something he should set as a goal.

But Ichigo just smirks. “She’ll take that as a challenge. Try not to get killed. Otherwise, I’d have to avenge you, and Yuushirou’s too young to take over.”

“I… see.” He doesn’t, but at least Ichigo doesn’t call him out on it.

His lord simply waves and begin heading back to his room. Just before he disappears through the doorway, he looks back, eyes gone soft in a way Kisuke still isn’t used to. “Thanks for defending me though, Kisuke. Goodnight.”

By the time Kisuke’s settled back into his futon, his face still feels too warm.

He has no idea what’s happening. Nobles aren’t even required to thank those in their employ for doing their job, and Kisuke even attacked the wrong person. He’s just grateful Ichigo’s sister seems to be about as laidback over the oddest things as Ichigo himself is.

Still… Kisuke thinks it’s not so bad. He’s still technically a servant here. He can’t leave even if he wants to or he’d be hunted down and killed.

But he thinks about the past four months, about how Ichigo treats him as an equal, and remembers too the first time he was wandering around the clan grounds working on sensing reiatsu by trying to find Ichigo.

Even just two months in, he was already so used to _not_ scraping and bowing in Ichigo’s presence that when he walked past someone, he only dipped his head politely, mind still focused on the signature that Ichigo’s flaring just enough for Kisuke to feel it when he concentrated. Next thing he knew, he was staggering sideways from a hard slap of a sheath against his knees, and he barely kept his footing even as he turned to find a man glaring at him. He wasn’t Shihouin but he was definitely still above Kisuke in station, a member of a lower noble house under the Shihouin Clan, and he wasted no time snapping at Kisuke, _“Don’t get above yourself, rat! We’ve all seen you strutting around here like you own the place. Show some respect to your betters!”_

Kisuke was already fumbling into the kind of proper bow the instructors showed them, and opening his mouth to apologize, one careful eye on the man’s hands and feet and blade, when Ichigo arrived. Between one heartbeat and the next, Ichigo became a searing presence in front of him, radiating so much fury that Kisuke actually had to take a stumbling step back. The fear on the man’s face though - that Kisuke remembers with secretly vindictive crystal clarity.

 _“He has no betters!”_ Ichigo had snarled at the cowering man between ripping him a new one, the gold of Ichigo’s eyes burning with the strength of his reiatsu.

And then he’d flash-stepped both himself and Kisuke back to their wing of the house before rounding on Kisuke as well, angry in an entirely different way.

 _“Don’t you dare do that again!”_ He’d shouted then, and Kisuke was too startled to even recoil. _“For formal functions and meetings and to a superior when it’s required is fine. To people you respect is fine. But you bow to no one else now! And no one, period, on your damn knees! Understand?!”_

Kisuke didn’t understand. But he nodded and drifted through the rest of the day in a bit of a daze, watching Ichigo storm around the kitchen furiously baking desserts for them and muttering and scowling like the pots and pans had offended him.

In all honesty, Kisuke still doesn’t understand. All he knows is that he instinctively stands a little straighter nowadays, still inclines his head as is polite to anybody he passes, holds it longer if it happens to be a Shihouin, but even when they sneer or turn their noses up like they think he stinks, he doesn’t apologize. The Shihouins only smile because they’re all strange like that, but that just lends Kisuke even more courage. Ichigo’s words ring in his ears every time, and it puts a steel in his spine that he never thought he would have.

He rolls onto his side and stares up at the night sky through the open window. He falls asleep to the memory of Ichigo smiling at him-- and the fleeting dreamlike thought of just how puzzlingly familiar that smile seems.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Seven months into his new life at Ichigo’s side, Kisuke’s just coming back after going out on a food run while Ichigo was meeting with his sister. They meet up in one of the entrance halls before heading back to their wing together.

Ichigo is frowning, per usual. Not so usual is the tension around his eyes, and Kisuke only catches it because they’ve spent so much time around each other by now.

“Is something wrong?” Kisuke enquires when Ichigo’s frown only grows deeper.

Ichigo blinks out of his thoughts, and his lips thin even more. “Not exactly. I have a few things I need to tell you-” They both glance forward when someone turns the corner up ahead. “-but let’s wait until we get back.”

Ah, it’s something classified then. That usually means missions. Ichigo’s technically not a Shinigami despite sweeping through the Academy in two years’ time. Apparently, people who have a clan’s backing can take a sabbatical of sorts after graduation, declining entrance to the military so long as they have a clan to vouch for them and ensure they won’t go rogue or anything. But Ichigo still takes missions for his sister from time to time, although they’ve never lasted more than a few days, a week tops, and they’ve never made Ichigo look as apprehensive as he does now.

Kisuke can wait though. He’s always been able to keep his mouth shut, and he’s actually pretty sure Ichigo isn’t supposed to tell him anything about the missions except maybe how long he’ll be away, but for as long as Kisuke’s known him, Ichigo’s definition of ‘classified’ has never excluded Kisuke from the information.

(Kisuke still doesn’t understand why - why Ichigo took him under his wing in the first place, why he glares at anyone who looks down on him for being Rukongai-born, why he shares everything from techniques to knowledge to his home so freely with Kisuke when no one else bar his sister seems particularly welcome in their wing of the house.

And he might never understand either, but he’s slowly learning to trust it, to trust Ichigo not to do a one-eighty one day and cast him out. He’s never trusted anyone in his life, dismissed the very idea ages ago as something foolish and suicidal, but of course, Ichigo proves to be the one exception.)

So any secrets Ichigo trusts him with - big or small - are secrets Kisuke will take with him to the grave.

They settle back into a comfortable silence as they continue up the hall. The dark-haired girl approaching them is dressed in the all-black uniform of an Onmitsukidou officer, and she steps to the side and bows stiffly when they’re only a few paces away from each other, although Kisuke can see the way her eyes narrow with distaste.

He ignores it. He’s never truly cared about other people’s opinions of him, only how they might affect him if he can’t make them like him or at least tolerate him. Now that he knows just how much he can get away with under the blanket of Ichigo’s protection, he’s allowed himself the careful pride of being able to walk around with his head held high.

They’re barely ten steps past when Kisuke just manages to pick up her scoff of, “I suppose someone they scraped out of the bottom of Rukongai is the best a bastard deserves.”

Kisuke freezes. His hand is on the hilt of his blade, which is halfway out of its sheath before he even has time to think. Only Ichigo’s hand snagging his wrist just as quickly prevents him from drawing it all the way.

“It’s fine, come on,” Ichigo mutters as Kisuke watches through unblinking eyes as the girl walks away, the voice of his still nameless Zanpakutou hissing with outrage at the back of his mind. The girl must feel his gaze on her because her shoulders stiffen, but before she can turn back, Ichigo sighs and tugs a little harder, “Kisuke, come _on_ , leave it alone,” and Kisuke is hauled around the corner before he can throw down.

They’re back in their shared wing and kicking off their shoes before Kisuke finally manages, “She had no right to say that.”

“I agree,” Ichigo says calmly as he leads the way through the living area, absently nudging the pieces of Kisuke’s latest project aside. He’s been trying to figure out how a gigai works so the dismantled parts of the three body-lookalikes Ichigo smuggled to him are currently scattered all over the floor. He should probably clean that up soon, or at least move it to one of the spare bedrooms.

“She insulted you,” Ichigo continues. “I can have her punished if you want, but you usually tell me that you just want to ignore them now that none of them have the balls to actually say anything to your face anymore.”

“That isn’t what I mean, and you know it,” Kisuke grumbles more heatedly than he usually ever gets. “She was disrespectful to _you!_ You’re a Shihouin, and she would _dare-_ ”

“She didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” Ichigo interjects, looking amused of all things. He makes grabby hands at Kisuke once they reach the dinner table, and Kisuke sighs but obligingly hands the takeout over. “When it came to me anyway. Frankly, that was a lot more offensive to you than to me. Are you sure you don’t want me to make her next week an absolute nightmare?”

“...She called you a bastard,” He stresses insistently. “She’s from a lesser noble house, at most, and she clearly meant it as an insult no matter how you look at it-”

“I _am_ a bastard though,” Ichigo reveals unexpectedly as he digs into the bag and retrieves the sushi Kisuke bought for them. “In the asshole sense, sometimes, but also the literal sense.”

Ichigo really isn’t any kind of cruel. Not to Kisuke anyway. As for literally being a bastard, that doesn’t make any sense either.

“You’re Shihouin-sama’s brother-“

“Half-brother,” Ichigo corrects, and Kisuke goes still. Ichigo smirks over his sushi as he cracks open the first carton. “You got me negitoro, good. But yeah, half-brother. We have the same father, but he had an affair with a Shiba woman some decades back, and that’s how I came along.”

He pushes Kisuke’s portion of the food at him, and Kisuke finally takes a seat even as he digests this new angle. “...Is that why you don’t have a personal guard? You’re not allowed one? A proper one?”

Ichigo snorts. “If there was some rule that bastard children aren’t allowed personal guards, Yoru-nee would’ve stuck me with some anyway. No, that’s not it. Personal guards are supposed to stay with you practically twenty-four/seven, and I-” He shrugs again. “-I don’t sleep well with other people in the vicinity.”

Kisuke blinks, because that is very obviously untrue.

Ichigo rolls his eyes. “Except you, obviously. And anyway, what would I do with an entire set of guards? You’re all I need.”

Kisuke almost chokes on his miso. He mentally curses his fair skin as he feels the heat rise in his face. “You shouldn’t say things like that, my lord.”

“Why? Is it embarrassing?”

Kisuke glances up to find Ichigo grinning at him, head propped up with one hand, looking highly entertained.

“Consider it payback,” He says cheerfully.

Kisuke splutters. “Payback for what?”

Ichigo just laughs, which is rare enough to make Kisuke stare, and that’s probably the only reason he sees the flicker of melancholy that gilds the edges of his expression the way it does sometimes when Kisuke says or does something that seems to remind Ichigo of something else entirely.

Kisuke never knows how to fix it when it happens, and he hates how helpless it makes him feel.

“She still shouldn’t have said it,” He says instead, hoping to distract. “Shihouin-sama calls you her little brother. She’s Clan Head and she’s obviously legitimized you.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that I came from an affair,” Ichigo says dryly.

“Still doesn’t change the fact that she shouldn’t have said it,” Kisuke retorts mutinously.

Ichigo pauses in-between bites of his udon and levels a fond look on Kisuke. “I don’t really care, Kisuke. Suí-Fēng - the girl - she’s very… dedicated.”

Kisuke squints dubiously at him.

“When it comes to Yoru-nee,” Ichigo amends. “She’s one of Yoru-nee’s personal guard, from the Fēng family, which has served the Shihouins for nine generations. Suí-Fēng practically worships Yoru-nee. Nobody else really compares, not even other Shihouins. She’s okay with Yuushirou and the others but as a Shihouin bastard, she thinks I taint Yoru-nee’s reputation.”

Kisuke has to make an effort to relax his grip before he snaps his chopsticks in half. “Shihouin-sama would never stand for such behaviour,” He points out instead.

Ichigo nods. “Yeah, but she doesn’t know. It’s not like Suí-Fēng and I interact that much. And when I meet with Yoru-nee, it’s usually just the two of us or with other family members. Besides, Suí-Fēng puts on a pretty good poker face when she wants to.”

Kisuke bristles. “You should tell your sister then.”

“Suí-Fēng is Yoru-nee’s favourite,” Ichigo tells him matter-of-factly. “More a protégé than a bodyguard most days. And Suí-Fēng _is_ devoted to serving Yoru-nee, and she’s a decent Shinigami too. I don’t want to put Yoru-nee in a position where she’d have to choose.”

He pauses and studies Kisuke for a moment before assurring again, “I honestly don’t care, Kisuke. She’s said things like that before, and it’s not like she’s the only one either. Suí-Fēng’s really not worth getting angry over.”

 _But you are_ , Kisuke doesn’t say. _You’re worth getting angry over, and if people aren’t allowed to treat me badly because of where I come from, then they aren’t allowed to do that to you either._

Outwardly, he nods, reluctantly. “I don’t care what she says about me either then.”

Inwardly, he sears the name into his memory and makes a note to start looking into Suí-Fēng’s daily routine.

The one time some Onmitsukidou officers - retainers of the Shihouin Clan - ambushed Kisuke on his way back from the training grounds and managed to break two of his ribs before Ichigo came swooping in like an avenging angel, the young lord made their lives a living hell for an entire month before Yoruichi made them disappear just so Ichigo would stop terrorizing the Onmitsukidou with his pranks and traps. Kisuke’s good enough now to plot his own revenge, and he knows what he can and can’t do well enough to get away with it.

“That kinda relates to what I want to talk to you about though,” Ichigo says abruptly. “Have you… Have you heard of a man named Aizen Sousuke?”

Kisuke leaves off eating in favour of considering that name. “I have. People talk about it. He’s a Shinigami who turned traitor, didn’t he?”

Ichigo stares at him for a long intent moment, and then he sighs and nods. “Yeah, that’s right. Long story short, Aizen was a lieutenant under Hirako-taichou, captain of the Fifth Division. Hirako-taichou was already kinda suspicious about him and finally managed to follow him back to one of his creepy labs in Hueco Mundo, where he busted in on Aizen experimenting on… a lot of people, everyone from Shinigami who went missing on missions to regular Rukongai civilians, with something he created, a Hogyoku-” His gaze rakes over Kisuke’s face. Kisuke nods to show he’s still listening. Ichigo blinks, some emotion flitting across his features before he continues. “-a Hogyoku, which erases the boundaries between Shinigami and Hollows and allows one to gain the powers of the other. Aizen was caught red-handed but he was… a lot stronger than the team Hirako-taichou brought along, especially since one of the Shinigami - Tousen, former fifth seat of the Ninth Division - turned out to be working for Aizen and managed to kill several of his squadmates in the confusion. The rest barely escaped back to Soul Society with their lives, but they did manage to grab a few prisoners when they fled.” Ichigo’s brow furrows, and he stares down at his sushi with an unfocused gaze that says he’s not really seeing it. “All of them died. Except one.”

Never let it be said that Ichigo’s faith in Kisuke’s intelligence is misplaced.

“...I don’t understand,” Kisuke admits, shunting aside the more immediate sick feeling of Ichigo being at the nonexistent mercy of _anyone_ for later. “I thought you only graduated from the Academy less than eight years ago, and you didn’t enter the Gotei or Onmitsukidou anyway. From what I hear, Aizen’s betrayal was discovered almost ten years ago. You wouldn’t have been given any missions yet. Unless Shihouin-sama sent you…?”

Ichigo shakes his head, looking faintly exasperated now. “Yoru-nee wouldn’t. I mean, okay, she was already training me of course, and she sent me on some Hollow extermination missions out in Rukongai, but she made clear that I wasn’t allowed out of Soul Society until I graduated from the Academy.” He fiddles with his chopsticks for a moment. “I’m a bastard. That’s kind of a big no-no for the elders of _any_ clan. So when I was born, the only reason anybody wanted me was because I had a lot of reiatsu. Like, tear-down-the-noise-muffling-seals-in-the-healer’s-wing-and-they-could-feel-it-five-miles-away kind of a lot. So I basically had two clans arguing for the right to raise me. The Shibas were more sympathetic - they’re more family-oriented as a clan - so my reiatsu wasn’t the _only_ reason for them. They were generally more popular too. The Shihouins had a bigger claim though, since a Clan Head was the father while my mother was from a branch family. Eventually, they came to an agreement to timeshare me. Half a year here, half a year there, and so on.”

Kisuke nods through the explanation, carefully keeping the derision off his face. God forbid the two clans factor in who could take care of Ichigo better. No, of course it would be about how much reiatsu he was born with.

He’s still not sure what any of that has to do with Ichigo ending up in Aizen’s clutches though. Also, if Ichigo’s timeshared between two clans, why are they still in the Shihouin compound seven months after Kisuke first started living here?

“Right,” Ichigo nods, reading Kisuke’s thoughts off his face like one would an open book. It used to make Kisuke feel uneasy. Now, even if he still doesn’t know how Ichigo does it, well, it’s _Ichigo_ , so it’s fine. “So, I was with the Shibas one day, and their main compound is inside Seireitei but they have a bunch of properties in the richer districts of Rukongai, and the Shibas as a whole generally spend a lot of time travelling around unless they’ve signed their souls away to the Gotei or something.”

Kisuke snorts, and Ichigo smirks briefly back at him.

“Anyway, it was the Shiba half of the year about twelve years ago so I was at the compound when the Tenth Division captain - one of my uncles - swung by and decided to take me with him and his team on a mission to the Human world to investigate Shinigami disappearances in a town.” Ichigo shrugs. “Apparently, Aizen was conducting experiments there too, although we didn’t know it at the time. We were swarmed by Hollows, and while that fight was going on, Aizen grabbed me and made off with me back to Hueco Mundo. I was found two years later by Hirako-taichou and the other Shinigami he brought with him, and obviously I recovered. I’d always been close to Yoru-nee though, and she was Clan Head already even before I was taken. She was furious that the Shibas lost me, so when she finally got me back, she demanded full custody and got it.”

Ichigo pauses again, eating a few more pieces of sushi before continuing haltingly, “I don’t… really remember my time with the Shihouins or the Shibas before I woke up at the Fourth. Just… a lot of pain, which I’m assuming were the experiments, and Aizen’s face and his labs, and flashes of memories of my life here. Unohana-taichou said it’s a side-effect of being… well, tortured for so long. My first clear memory is waking up on Aizen’s creepy lab table with people fighting outside. It’s probably why I didn’t really kick up much of a fuss when Yoru-nee told me I wouldn’t be living with the Shibas anymore. I don’t remember them, so I don’t miss them.” He gives Kisuke a bracing smile. “That’s kind of heartless, isn’t it?”

“They were irresponsible enough to let you be kidnapped,” Kisuke points out. “I don’t think it matters whether or not they thought you could take care of yourself because you had some training and plenty of reiatsu. They were still responsible for making sure you were safe. And if you feel more comfortable with the Shihouins than the Shibas as a result, I do not think you can be blamed for that.”

Ichigo regards him with a critical eye for a second before a reluctant smile twitches across his face.

“You don’t believe me?” Kisuke frowns.

Ichigo snorts. “That’s not it. I just think you’d take my side even if I _do_ share the blame. So I realized asking you a question like that is kind of pointless.”

...Well, he isn’t _wrong_.

“I would tell you the truth,” Kisuke offers. “So if I thought it was your fault, I would tell you. But yes, I would still take your side and also tell you that you should be able to live wherever and however you want.”

Ichigo huffs a breath of laughter at that. “That’s an improvement, I guess.”

Kisuke cocks his head. Improvement from what? “I would never lie to you.”

Once yes, probably, he would’ve said anything he thought Ichigo would want to hear. That’s how you survive after all. But, not anymore, or at least, not with Ichigo.

Ichigo looks even more amused at that for some reason, but all he does is shake his head, and the subject is dropped as he moves them back to the original topic.

“Anyway, ever since Aizen was revealed as a traitor, he’s kept to Hueco Mundo while we’ve stayed in Soul Society and made sure his Arrancar army’s Gargantas can’t breach this dimension. But he’s been sending out his growing army into the Human world to cause havoc, and he needs to be stopped. The problem is, not only is he crazy strong, we also don’t know where he’s holed up in Hueco Mundo. The labs Hirako-taichou found were abandoned. So Yoru-nee wants to send me in to try to find him. Well, she doesn’t _want_ to, but they have no other options.”

Kisuke’s already stiffened because he very much does not like where this is going. “And why would you know?”

“I told her - when I was first rescued - that I remembered some things from my time in Aizen’s tender loving care, including when he moved me from lab to lab.”

Kisuke stares stonily at him.

Ichigo sighs but doesn’t make excuses. “It’s going to be a long mission. Months. Maybe even up to a year.  Yoru-nee can’t come - she has Clan Head duties and commander-in-chief duties and captain duties, plus this is tracking, not assassination, so she’s not absolutely needed. Hirako-taichou will be with me though, along with a handful of other Shinigami, so I won’t be alone.”

Kisuke’s jaw clenches. “I should come too. I’m your _personal guard_.”

Ichigo meets his gaze. “You haven’t even been able to unseal your Zanpakutou yet,” and for all that he says it gently, Kisuke still feels it like a stab to the heart.

“I’ll be fine,” Ichigo tells him. “I’m a lot stronger than I was even just a decade ago. Nothing should go wrong. It’s not like we’re expected to attack Aizen as soon as we find him. Our mission is strictly just to track his base down and then open a Senkaimon for reinforcements. That’s it.”

That doesn’t make Kisuke feel any better. _He_ still won’t be there in case something _does_ go wrong.

 _B u t  w h a t  c a n  y o u  d o  a n y w a y?_ The voice of his Zanpakutou whispers contemptuously in his head. _Y o u  d o  n o t  e v e n  r e m e m b e r  m y  n a m e. W h e n  a r e  y o u  g o i n g  t o **w a k e  u p, U r a h a r a  K i s u k e?**_

The voice fades away again. He’s never understood half the things it tells him in dreams and waking moments both, and this time is no different.

He blinks back into the tense silence that’s fallen. He doesn’t have much of an appetite anymore.

“I’ve actually been thinking,” Ichigo speaks up again suddenly. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But I’ve been thinking, do you want to attend the Academy?”

Kisuke stills. Ichigo is watching him with perfectly serious eyes.

“Cuz you can, if you want,” Ichigo continues. “It’s six years of formal education in the Shinigami arts, but obviously, you can graduate earlier if they think you’re good enough. I’ve taught you some things but I don’t follow the Academy curriculum to the letter, so they’ll probably be able to teach you at least a few things too if you go.”

“...I would be allowed?” Kisuke blurts out.

This time, it’s Ichigo’s turn to go still, but only for a startled moment before his gaze snaps up in a glare. His voice is quiet when he speaks but no less fierce. “I thought I’ve made myself clear by now, Kisuke. You are allowed _anything you want_.”

Kisuke’s wanted to ask before, but this is the first time he manages to force out, “Why?”

_Why me? Why only me? Why are you like this? Why do you care?_

Ichigo heaves a sigh and scrubs a hand over his face, and in that moment, he looks older and more tired than Kisuke’s ever seen him. But all he does is push back from the table before getting up to go make some tea.

(Kisuke’s not allowed to make tea after the first three times he nearly burned down the wing.

Ichigo had laughed himself sick. _“It’s good to see some things stay the same!”_

He never did explain what he meant.)

“Because you’re you,” is all Ichigo says in the end, as if that makes _any sense whatsoever._ But he also stares Kisuke straight in the eye like the words are absolute truth, an oath he would live and die and kill by. “And I’d give up the world if you asked. Compared to that,” He waves a hand at their surroundings, at Kisuke’s projects and shogi board and books and their very home. “ _Stuff_ is nothing.”

Kisuke sits there, numb and speechless. Something in him _shakes_ , and he wants to run and hide and shake Ichigo until an answer that actually makes sense falls out, all at the same time.

He does none of those things and instead takes the tea with hands that only tremble a little when Ichigo hands it to him.

“You will come back,” He says, more a statement than a question or even a plea.

Ichigo smiles at him, soft and warm and steady the way it’s always been when directed at Kisuke. “Of course I will.”

Kisuke nods once. “Then I will attend the Academy while you are away. I will be finished by the time you return.”

This time, Ichigo laughs like there could be no other outcome. “Of course you will.”

And his faith too is something Kisuke doesn’t think he will ever understand. But it is for him, and freely given, and he would do anything to keep it.

 

* * *

 

It only takes a week before he’s jumped to a sixth-year course in Kidou. It only takes two weeks before the head of the Kidou Department pulls him out of his Kidou classes entirely and offers him private tutoring. Kisuke accepts readily, if only because the regular classes literally put him to sleep.

Likewise, he outstrips everyone else when it comes to Hohou. One can’t live with a Shihouin and _not_ excel at this particular combat skill.

He’s also ahead in Zanjutsu, and he’s already read half the required reading for all six years at the Academy. He’s bashful and modest about it, smiling when they want a smile, always polite, and the teachers shower him with praise. All of them agree he’ll be finished within the year.

“That keen to get back to Ichi-chan, I see,” is Koyonagi’s only assessment, dry and amused in equal measure between coaching Kisuke through constructing a multi-layered barrier without an incantation.

Kisuke glances at him. Koyonagi only smiles serenely back at him, and they get back to work.

Kisuke’s not sure whether he likes the man or not. He’s the only one of the teachers who’s more amused than charmed by his mannerisms, who smiles as slyly as Kisuke carefully doesn’t. But he knows more Kidou than anyone Kisuke’s ever met, and if nothing else, he’s determined to learn everything the Shinigami can possibly teach him.

His fellow students are a different matter. They sneer at him or flatter him, jealous and resentful in turn, but that’s nothing new, and these days, Kisuke can defend himself just fine from a bunch of Academy students who won’t be anywhere near his level even after they graduate.

He does make one friend. Tsukabishi Tessai is as quiet as he is big, but they partner together for a project, and he doesn’t treat Kisuke as someone he wants to tear down or take advantage of. Likewise, Kisuke very much does not give a damn that Tessai is from Rukongai, and by the end of the week, they’re eating lunch together almost daily and they’ve… _persuaded_ Kisuke’s now-former roommate to switch places with Tessai.

He’s never had a friend before. Ichigo is in a category of his own, not quite friend, long since past a mere master or even employer, something Kisuke can’t put a name on yet.

So Tessai is new and different, but Kisuke thinks he could get used to it anyway.

 

* * *

 

The year passes quickly. Kisuke still goes home every weekend to keep the place dust-free and tidy. He also works on his gigai project until he finally produces the first prototype of one that takes on the physical traits of whatever DNA has been implanted into it.

On one of the test-missions he takes out in Rukongai, he cuts off a piece of a spider Hollow and sneaks it back into Seireitei with him. He makes a lookalike of said Hollow and lets the gigai loose in Suí-Fēng’s room when she’s out. He has to muffle giggles from the eaves of a nearby roof behind an illusion Kidou upon hearing Suí-Fēng practically screech half the house down when the spider Hollow gigai drops from the ceiling and right on top of her head.

Unfortunately, she kills it very violently - how rude - so Kisuke has to scrounge enough material to make another one, this time of a giant worm Hollow. He even smooths out the jerky movements that the spider had.

The third time, he doesn’t have a mission to go on anytime soon so he catches a mildly poisonous snake and uses that instead. He’s hoping it’ll bite her so he’ll be able to know if a Gigai-snake can produce poison, but unfortunately it’s too slow, and Suí-Fēng - whom he’s pleased to see has been looking increasingly paranoid - stabs it before it can do more than slither over her foot.

Shihouin-sama finds him after the third time. For a moment, his breath freezes in his lungs when he finds her in one of the bedrooms, examining the inflatable gigai he’s been trying to cobble together, but he squares his shoulders and waits until she pins him with a sharp look that demands the truth. She asks only one question, “What did Suí-Fēng do to my brother?”

Because Kisuke’s never retaliated _for himself_. Ichigo’s always done that for him, and Shihouin-sama knows it.

And Kisuke can tell her now, tell her about what Suí-Fēng thinks of Ichigo. He may not know Shihouin-sama very well, but he knows she loves her brother, her family, and she’d get rid of Suí-Fēng in a heartbeat if she finds out that her own protégé considers Ichigo worthless because of his bastard status.

But… But Ichigo didn’t want him to, and even if Kisuke would like nothing more than to make Suí-Fēng disappear for her audacity, his first loyalty is still to Ichigo.

So instead, he replies, “I believe that is something you should discuss with your brother, Shihouin-sama.”

The Clan Head’s eyebrows go up. “I could order you to tell me.”

Kisuke doesn’t blink. “I do not follow your orders.”

“I could kill you if you don’t,” She counters, and her reiatsu is a sudden ripple of dagger points around her.

Kisuke returns her gaze evenly. “Then your brother would be very cross with you when he comes back and finds me dead.”

Shihouin-sama stares for a moment longer before her reiatsu mutes itself again and she barks out a laugh.

“I wonder if Ichi-bo knew you’d be this loyal when he first saw you,” She muses almost to herself even as she flips backwards onto the sill of the open window. She looks at him again and smirks. “Keep up the good work, Kisuke-chan. And try not to kill my bodyguard until I find out why.”

And then she’s gone, disappearing in a blur of black and purple. Kisuke releases his breath in a short exhale and looks at his projects. He thinks it’s probably time to start working on secrecy seals.

 

* * *

 

Kisuke graduates top of the graduating year and gets his pick of squads as a result. Koyonagi once again pulls him aside and asks in almost lazy tones, “I assume you’ll be declining entry into the Gotei?”

Kisuke nods at once. Koyonagi hums and whips out a stack of paperwork, which he drops into Kisuke’s arms. “Sign those and then trot them down to the Ninth. They’re in charge of paperwork.” His smile is almost fond even as he boots Kisuke from his office. “Good luck wherever you end up, kid. You’re not as dull as most of the Shinigami in this place. Don’t waste your talents.”

Kisuke checks the paperwork as he makes his way back to his dorm room. They’ve all already been signed, by Yoruichi and three Academy department heads.

He’s grateful that nobody’s objected, and they’ve even made the process easy for him. But he also makes sure he’s able to forge all four signatures before he turns the paperwork in.

He shouldn’t waste his talents after all.

 

* * *

 

He says goodbye to Tessai, promises to keep in touch, packs his bags, and moves all his things back home again. The wing feels extra quiet but Kisuke does his best to ignore it as he eats his takeout and wonders when Ichigo will be back.

He doesn’t have to wonder for long.

 

* * *

 

Kisuke excelled at everything the Academy could teach him. Everything except learning his Zanpakutou’s name.

It isn’t required. Ninety-nine percent of the time, graduates can’t even hear their Zanpakutou until several years into their tenure as Shinigami.

But it chafes at Kisuke all the same.

He feels like he should know it.

And he’s pretty sure his Zanpakutou thinks he should know it too, if the increasing knife’s-edge sense of agitation is anything to go by.

 

* * *

 

The skies above Seireitei crack open midday the next day like the yawning maw of an eldritch beast. There are shouts and screams as everyone scrambles for their weapons, expecting Hollows to come out of the Garganta.

Except-

Kisuke is in the middle of his shopping when it happens. The shelves at home need restocking after so long with nobody living there. He looks up like everyone else when the Garganta splits open, one hand already at his Zanpakutou, groceries forgotten as he Shunpos back towards the Shihouin compound, never taking his eyes off the black miasma of a portal.

Which is why he knows the exact moment a figure with bright orange hair drops out of it, and even from this far away, the blood that covers half his face is shockingly obvious.

Kisuke almost crashes into the side of the next building. He watches the limp figure fall and fall and fall, and then-

Between one breath and the next, he disappears from the rooftop he was standing on and reappears next to Ichigo, snatching him out of the air before disappearing again and reappearing in a nearby alleyway just as a beam of purple light bursts out of the Garganta and slams into the city below in a giant explosion.

Kisuke is already throwing up a Kidou shield a beat before the purple beam _disintegrates_ the building on his right, and he grits his teeth and holds Ichigo that much tighter to him as he braces his feet and holds the shield steady, waiting out the attack.

“Ki-”

Kisuke looks down as Ichigo coughs and jerks awake with a spasm of limbs that paints a grimace across his face.

He’s lost an eye, Kisuke realizes with horror. And half his face is a bloody mess. His Shihakushou is drenched with blood as well, and one of his arms hangs limp like it’s broken.

But still he looks at Kisuke with his one good eye and smiles, teeth laced with red. He opens his hand, and Kisuke automatically looks down to find the shattered pieces of what used to be a blue gem of some sort.

“Got it,” Ichigo rasps out, fever-eyed and triumphant. “Aizen’s done. Just gotta finish ’im off now. I hacked ’im up pre’y good.” His eyelids dip, still half-unconscious. “You an’ Benihime be careful, ’kay?”

He sags, and Kisuke swears. He releases the shield once the purple light dissipates, carefully lowering Ichigo to the ground before ripping open his Shihakushou to check the rest of the damage.

“Ichigo!” He hisses, hands lighting up with healing Kidou. “Don’t you dare do this to me. Once was enough!”

He freezes. He works on autopilot, trying to knit bone and muscle and flesh back together before Ichigo bleeds out, but-

_Once was enough? He’s never-_

_What is-_

_Benihime?_

There’s a ringing in his ears. His heartbeat thuds loud with every breath he takes. Memories - Ichigo in every scene - flickers through his mind, so quickly that he shouldn’t even be able to register them, let alone understand where they’re coming from. And yet-

 ** _U r a h a r a  K i s u k e,_** His Zanpakutou _screams_.

-the images fly through his head-

**_D o  y o u  s t i l l  -_ **

-a stone, a traitor, a world on the verge of collapse, _Ichigo Ichigo Ichigo, lifeblood staining Kisuke’s hands don’tleaveme-!_

**_\- n o t  k n o w  m e?_ **

-and something in him-

**_W A K E -_ **

_-shatters._

“-up,” He finishes, eyes falling shut, and crimson red light roars to life around him.

_“Awaken, Benihime!”_

 

* * *

 

They would share hushed tales in the aftermath, of Aizen Sousuke who came barrelling into Seireitei through the Garganta, missing an arm, white uniform splattered with blood, and a gaping blood-soaked hole in the center of his chest, but still with the rage of an avenging god fueling him, only to come face to face with a black-haired woman who rose high above the destroyed buildings, elegant and proud and terrifying as her hands reached towards Aizen like they would embrace him.

Aizen never stood a chance. He attempted to backpedal, but between one blink and the next, stitches laced themselves along the length and width of his body, and in another breath, he was literally _split apart_.

Not even Aizen Sousuke could come back from that.

It would be days before enough eyewitnesses could piece together what the hell had happened. In the meantime, the tales were passed from man to woman to child, of how the long cold war against Soul Society’s greatest traitor finally came to an end.

 

* * *

 

Ichigo wakes to a familiar body spooned behind him, a pale hand feathering fingers down one side of his face. He breathes and breathes again. “...Kisuke?”

Lips press briefly to the back of his neck. “Ichigo. How are you feeling?”

“...Sore,” He says hoarsely. He rolls onto his back, and Kisuke lets him, easing away and supporting his back as he struggles into a sitting position. A cup of water touches his lips, and he drinks.

He can’t stop staring at Kisuke as soon as he catches sight of him though.

Kisuke, who smiles - quiet and warm and familiar - just the way Ichigo remembers.

He closes his eyes and breathes in again, fighting down the hot prickle behind his eyelids. When Kisuke draws him into a hug, mindful of his injuries but possessive all the same, he goes easily, clutching at Kisuke with equal desperation.

“You finally _remember_.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kisuke murmurs. “I still don’t know what went wrong. But I’m so sorry you had to be alone for so long.”

Ichigo can’t find the words to say anything. He just curls further into Kisuke’s embrace - he’s so much _smaller_ than the man now, that’s still strange - and he doesn’t even care when his body twinges in protest.

“It’s okay,” He finally manages to croak out. “You were too, kind of. Younger you. And you’re here now, that’s what matters, so it’s okay. Besides… no-memory-you was here for months and-” He chokes out a laugh. “-you were kinda cute and kinda pulled at the heartstrings and kinda weird but I still loved you.”

Kisuke’s arms tighten around him for a moment before relaxing again. “I have never been _cute_ , Ichigo. I am a handsome shopkeeper, remember?”

Ichigo snorts with laughter. “Not anymore. Whole new world now.”

The reminder sobers them both. Kisuke pulls away a little, although only far enough so they can see each other again.

“Aizen?” Ichigo asks, wondering what the hell they’re going to do if that cockroach is somehow _still_ alive.

“Dead,” Kisuke confirms, his smile a very dark, very satisfied one this time. “Benihime tore him apart, although you weakened him considerably first, which definitely helped. Even I was surprised he couldn’t dodge even once in time. It was a very short-lived battle.”

Ichigo lets out a long breath of relief. “Oh thank fuck, then it’s over.”

Kisuke hums in agreement before his expression goes stern. “Whatever happened to sending for reinforcements though?”

Ichigo makes a face. “There was no time! We managed to find him just as he was leaving to go through with his souls and juureichi plan.”

“So you kicked down his door and threw yourself headlong at him right away,” Kisuke guesses dryly.

Ichigo shrugs unrepentantly. “Yeah, pretty much.” He winces a little. “Shinji’s gonna be so mad. He was yelling at me the entire time while running after me into Aizen’s oversized throne room. _Yoru-nee’s_ gonna be mad at me too. I bet Shinji tattled.” He stops again. “Yoruichi-san is my _sister_. That’s never not gonna be weird. This _world_ is fucking weird.”

Kisuke chuckles and eases Ichigo back down onto the futon. “It will take some getting used to, yes.”

He smooths down some of Ichigo’s stray locks. His hair is longer in this world. Fingers trace his face again, and Ichigo blinks owlishly up at him.

“You… lost an eye,” Kisuke tells him, his own eyes darkening with the memory for a moment. “And most of the left side of your face looked like it had been burned off. You had some other serious injuries as well but your eye was the worse, and your reiatsu exhaustion left your healing factor almost nonexistent. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get you to Unohana-taichou in time, or even if there was anything she could do.” His expression shutters a little as he confesses, “I asked Benihime to fix you. You have quite a few scars now. I’m sorry.”

Ichigo blinks again. “...Are you serious? Is that all?” He rolls his eyes before reaching up to yank Kisuke back down with him. He cradles the man’s face in his hands for a minute, drinking in the familiar features and more importantly those familiar grey eyes that _know_ Ichigo now when he looks at him.

“I’m alive. You’re alive. We both remember. Do you think I give a _damn_ about anything else?”

Kisuke’s eyes slide shut for a moment even as he leans into Ichigo’s touch. The silence around them is a gentle one, and when Kisuke opens his eyes again, the tender affection in them is equally so.

He doesn’t say anything more, but he turns his head to brush a kiss over the pulse in Ichigo’s wrist before nudging him back onto his less achy side and then cuddling up behind him.

Ichigo drifts off back to sleep like that, warm and safe and content in the knowledge that when he wakes, Kisuke will be there too.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **FIN.**
> 
>  
> 
> [Yoruichi corners Ichigo about Suì-Fēng and they have a Discussion.](http://cheshiresense.tumblr.com/post/176651475118/in-guard-how-does-the-whole-waves-hand)
> 
> [Ichigo comes home to tell Kisuke about the post-battle review to Central 46. And then there is UraIchi domesticity.](http://cheshiresense.tumblr.com/post/180062061848/for-guard-are-you-planning-on-doing-anything)


End file.
